The Caterpillar C280 is a medium-speed, four-stroke trunk-piston marine and stationary diesel engine produced by Caterpillar Marine, with a 280 millimetre cylinder bore and a 300 millimetre piston stroke. The engine is the largest Caterpillar-branded diesel marine product (above the smaller 3500 series and the C32 high-speed family) and was developed from the long-running Electro-Motive Diesel locomotive engine lineage that Caterpillar acquired through Progress Rail in 2010. The C280 is offered in L6, L8, V12, V16, and V20 cylinder configurations with rated outputs from approximately 2,500 kilowatts to 8,000 kilowatts, principally for marine genset and offshore vessel main propulsion applications.
Cylinder data and outputs
The C280 produces approximately 400 to 470 kilowatts per cylinder depending on the rating, at 900 or 1,000 revolutions per minute. The engine is rated at:
- C280-6: 2,500 to 2,800 kilowatts at 6 cylinders.
- C280-8: 3,300 to 3,750 kilowatts at 8 cylinders.
- C280-12: 5,000 to 5,650 kilowatts at 12 cylinders.
- C280-16: 6,650 to 7,500 kilowatts at 16 cylinders.
Brake mean effective pressure is approximately 22 to 24 bar, with specific fuel consumption around 195 grams per kilowatt-hour at full load on diesel fuel, competitive with the medium-speed segment but slightly above the most efficient products from MAN and Wärtsilä.
Origin in the EMD lineage
The C280 derives directly from the Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) 710 locomotive engine that EMD has produced in continuous development since the 1980s. The 710 designation refers to the cubic-inch displacement per cylinder of the engine, equating to approximately 11.6 litres per cylinder. The marine adaptation of the platform was originally branded EMD 710 Marine, becoming Caterpillar C280 Marine after Progress Rail’s 2010 acquisition of EMD by Caterpillar.
The locomotive heritage of the C280 is significant in two respects. First, the engine is one of the few medium-speed marine engines with a continuous high-volume production base outside the marine market (locomotive 710 production has continued in the United States and via Progress Rail’s licensees). Second, the platform is robustly engineered for the demanding duty cycle of mainline diesel-electric locomotives, providing meaningful reliability advantages on continuous-duty marine genset applications.
Marine applications
The C280 is principally deployed in:
- Offshore supply vessel and platform supply vessel main propulsion in the medium-output range, often in V12 or V16 configurations driving electric propulsion motors through a diesel-electric architecture.
- Drilling rig and FPSO genset packages in the 3 to 7.5 megawatt range per unit.
- Cargo vessel and tanker auxiliary gensets at the upper output range, where the C280 competes with the MAN L32/44CR, Wärtsilä 32, and Bergen B33:45.
- Naval auxiliary power generation on selected United States Navy and US Coast Guard vessels.
- Land-based power generation in 2.5 to 30 megawatt distributed-generation plants.
Fuel and emissions
The C280 runs on:
- Marine distillate fuel (marine diesel oil and marine gas oil) as the principal marine fuels.
- Heavy fuel oil with selected fuel system upgrades.
- Biofuel blends at progressively higher proportions.
- Selected dual-fuel adaptations under development for LNG and methanol applications.
IMO Tier II compliance is standard. Tier III compliance is achieved through selective catalytic reduction systems, with Caterpillar offering integrated SCR packages. The C280 has been developed for compliance with US EPA Tier 4 marine standards through SCR and exhaust gas recirculation in selected variants.
Manufacturing and service
The C280 is built principally at:
- EMD’s La Grange, Illinois facility (US locomotive heritage works).
- Caterpillar Marine’s selected partner facilities for marine adaptation and final assembly.
Service is supported globally through the Caterpillar dealer network, which is one of the largest worldwide, with service centres in approximately 200 countries. The combination of Caterpillar’s marine dealer organisation and the EMD locomotive aftermarket creates a particularly robust service network for the platform.
Position in the Caterpillar marine range
The C280 sits in the Caterpillar Marine product portfolio:
- Below: Cat 3500 medium-speed marine engines (170 mm bore family) for smaller marine main propulsion and genset applications.
- Below: Cat C32 high-speed marine engines for yacht, fast craft, and small commercial applications.
- Above: nothing — the C280 is Caterpillar Marine’s largest diesel marine product.
- Adjacent: MaK M-series medium-speed engines (Caterpillar Marine’s other medium-speed family inherited from the 1997 MaK acquisition).
The MaK M-series and the C280 cover overlapping but distinct output ranges, with MaK historically focused on European marine applications and the C280 on North American and offshore-oil-and-gas applications.
Engineering significance
The C280 is significant within the medium-speed marine segment as the principal application of the EMD locomotive engineering lineage in marine service, as Caterpillar’s flagship medium-speed marine product, and as one of the dominant medium-speed engines in the offshore oil and gas and diesel-electric vessel segments in North America and the Gulf of Mexico. The product line continues active development under Caterpillar Marine ownership in 2026.